Lithium-ion cells are the current choice for high frequency rechargeable batteries in devices such as, but not limited to, phones, movie cameras, hand-tools, laptop computers, and the like devices. In addition, with the expansion of electric cars and solar storage devices using lithium-ion batteries, lithium-based battery technology will likely be a preferred battery in the foreseeable future. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries may have a relatively long useful life; however, the batteries eventually fail or are often discarded prior to failure and contribute to an increasing waste stream.
Despite claims that rechargeable lithium-ion batteries will last up to 6 or even 10 years of effective battery life for many of the small device batteries (that is, phones, computers, tools, etc.), a more realistic battery life is closer to 3 years. This real-battery-life average translates into a large amount of lithium available to be recovered from spent batteries by recycling. In view of the relatively short battery life of such batteries and the increasing demand in electronics and automobiles, it is expected the ultimate demand for lithium sources to substantially increase in the coming years. Both the demand for new lithium production from mined resources and the recycling of spent lithium ion batteries will complement the accelerated demand for lithium to be produced.
However, prior methods of metal recovery in spent batteries and other recyclable materials, such as pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical processing, tend to be inefficient or uneconomical when considering the relative small amounts of lithium available for recovery in conventional lithium-ion batteries and cells. For instance, a conventional lithium-ion cell, such as the popular 18650 lithium-ion cell, is a 3.7 or a 4.2 volt cell with up to about 8 total grams of lithium. Prior recovery methods are energy intensive and generally not economical for the recovery of lithium from spent batteries.